An FA spokesman told Sportsmail Duff 's offence could be 'similar to the Gerrard incident', referring to when Liverpool's Steven Gerrard was not punished for striking Portsmouth's Michael Brown last week.

The Kirkland incident in the 58th minute will be probed, though, with Wigan launching an internal inquiry.

The blow caused Kirkland so much pain a source close to the player says he felt like he had been hit by a brick, although it is understood the object was a coin.

Police lined up in front of the away fans to prevent any more trouble. And Kirkland had the last laugh in the 93rd minute when Victor Moses' cross was met by a diving header from Hugo Rodallega.

Hugo's boss: Burnley players are cretsfallen after Hugo Rodallega produces the match-winner for the hosts

Discussing the missile-throwing, Kirkland said: 'You don't want that in the game. It's not nice. Hopefully the authorities will deal with it.

'But how can you stop somebody from throwing something? There are 5,000 people there. We've seen it before and we'll see it again.'

Speaking about his celebration, he added: 'You know how big the game is. It was a massive, massive goal.'

The pressure on Burnley will intensify this week as their next game is against arch-rivals Blackburn.

Burnley right back Tyrone Mears said: 'It doesn't get much bigger than that game. No extra motivation will be needed. The bottom half of the league is still quite poor really and you look at it and think we still have a good chance of getting out of it.'